Livestock feeding – ration, housing and feed conversion ratio
Design & TechnologyAgriculture, Forestry & AquacultureAges 12–13
Use it with your class: students open it from a link or a QR code, with no account needed.
Next in Agriculture, Forestry & Aquaculture
A batch of livestock (broiler chickens, ducks, pigs or beef cattle) is raised from arrival at the pen to market weight. Students set the feeding ration level, choose the housing type and whether to vaccinate, then press Run to watch the mass gain over the days raised, the feed used, and the feed conversion ratio FCR = feed eaten divided by mass gained. During raising you can press Feed extra, Clean pen and Vaccinate; a dirty pen or missing vaccination makes the animals more likely to fall sick, grow slowly and lose numbers from the herd.
Lesson: Feeding and caring for livestock; disease prevention and treatment; raising broiler chickens on a household farm
What it shows
Livestock farming is judged by how efficiently animals turn feed into body mass. The simulation follows a batch of broiler chickens, ducks, pigs or beef cattle from arrival to market weight and calculates the feed conversion ratio, FCR = feed eaten ÷ mass gained; a lower FCR means less feed per kilogram of meat. Growth follows an S-shaped curve: slow at first, fastest mid-cycle, then levelling off. Ration, housing, pen hygiene and vaccination all affect herd health, and sick animals grow slowly and may be lost from the herd.
How to use
Choose an Animal, keep the Feeding ration relative to requirement at 100% with vaccination ticked, press Run and compare the final mass and FCR with the standard shown. Reset and try 140%, then 60%, comparing growth with feed used. Next untick Fully vaccinated against disease, or let pen hygiene fall without pressing Clean pen, and watch herd health and survival. Finally compare the Housing type options with everything else unchanged.
Parameters you can change
- Animal Broiler chicken (42 days), Meat duck (50 days), Pig (150 days), Beef cattle (300 days)
- Feeding ration relative to requirement 40–140 %
- Housing type Ordinary open-sided pen, Enclosed pen with fans and cooling, Free-range yard
- Fully vaccinated against disease
- Playback speed 1–20 days/second
Questions to explore
- Does feeding 140% of the requirement improve or worsen the FCR, and why?
- How do herd health and survival change when the animals are not vaccinated and the pen is never cleaned?
- Which housing type gives the fastest growth for broiler chickens, and what might explain the difference?
